I woke up a few hours later feeling rejuvenated and ready to get this latest disaster figured out. I rolled over and smiled at Ranger who was sitting on the other side of the bed, working on his laptop.

"Sleeping Beauty finally awakens." Ranger said.

"Mmm, don't you know the story? She needs a kiss to wake up." I joked but he smiled and bent over, giving me a quick but breathtaking kiss. Well I don't know about sleeping beauty but Ranger's kisses definitely did not make me want to get out of bed.

"Come on Babe." Ranger said as he swung gracefully from the bed. "Ella brought breakfast and we do need to talk." We went to the table and ate a quick breakfast before Ranger went into work mode. "First, I want to apologize for storming off earlier. The thought of some man watching you is enough to drive me insane and I needed to get my anger under control before talking with you. You already have enough people yelling at you."

My eyes welled up. Even when I snapped Batman's legendary control, he wouldn't unleash his anger at me. "I'm sorry. I just hate this. Its like every time I start to relax and I'm happy some asshole comes into my life and ruins everything. I knew it was stupid not to tell you everything but I didn't want to stop living. It feels like he wins."

Ranger nodded "It isn't fair for you, I know. But if the choice is between your life and some restriction in your freedom, there isn't really a choice. If keeping you alive makes you hate me, then so be it. Second, these pictures are showing a rapid escalation in his behaviour and obsession."

With that he passed over the recent photos. I flipped through them silently. The first group were of me waiting by my car and talking with Eddie, then me coming and going from Rangeman. The last set were polaroids and these were of me sleeping in my bed, his hand stroking my hair. I shuddered in disgust. "Were there any not of me?" I asked quietly and he shook his head, watching me intently. "I agree that my apartment isn't safe and I'll spend the nights here and I'll keep your men with me. But I don't want to go in lockdown"

"Deal Babe. Now Zero went through your apartment. There was no sign of force on your door and it doesn't look like anything was destroyed. You will need to walk through and check for anything out of place or missing later today. He dusted for prints in the most likely areas but it's likely the prints belonged to you. There was a partial print that he lifted off your phone which Zero confirmed does not match your prints, but there is no way of knowing if it's our guy at this time. We've also analyzed our security cameras to see if we could pick him up when he followed you here earlier. There's a potential male who walked past shortly after you arrived but unfortunately we never got a look at his face." Ranger pulled up the security feed on his laptop. "Does anything about him stand out to you?"

I watched as a man in a grey hoodie with the hood on walked by the camera and across the road. "Uh no."

"Babe." Ranger said closing his laptop. "I've got a meeting in 10 minutes. What do you have on for today?"

"I need to check in at the office and I've got a couple of skips that have been giving me the slip. I also should check in with Eddie and let him know about last night." I sighed. "Who's with me today?"

Turns out it was Hal and Manny. I smiled at them as they met me in the garage. "All right guys. First stop is Tasty Pastry and then the office." We climbed in our cars and drove off. I had just entered the burg when I caught sight of Travis Coleman, one of my current FTA's, driving past me. He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon which gave me chills and I had already failed to grab him twice. Last time the asshole had pulled a gun on me but he was a high bond so I did a quick right turn after him. There was the scream of breaks behind me and a loud honk and I glanced back to see Manny throw the finger at the furious driver as he stuck to my car. Thankfully we were in Trenton so Travis didn't look to see what the commotion was about and I tailed him to his girlfriends house.

Throwing my car in park, I jumped out and raced up behind him with my stun gun, pressing it against him and pressing the button. Nothing happened except Travis turned around, catching me with a backhand. I fell back as pain bloomed on my face and then heard a yell. Hal had picked him up by the collar and threw him hard at the side of the house. Up again and he shook him like a rag doll before pinning him on the ground and snapping on cuffs. "Whoops." Manny said as he kicked him hard in the torso and then pulled me to my feet. "Shit, wifey. That looks like it hurts." He said as he gently turned my head to look closer at what I am sure was a rapidly forming black eye.

"I'm fine guys." I told the concerned Merry Men. "And hey, with the money from bringing him in I can hit the mall and get some new shoes!" I laughed at the panic in their faces at the thought of having to escort me in the mall. "Don't worry guys… I'll wait til I get the all clear. It will be a celebratory pair of shoes." I guess we will make a pit stop at the station before the office.

I walked with my entourage into the police station. "Alright, you guys wait here with Trevor, I'm going to go talk to Eddie." I took a couple steps when Manny grabbed my arm. "Oh come on guys. I'm in the police station, surrounded by cops." His grip didn't loosen. "Ok how about if Hal comes with me then." The guys looked at each other, having a conversation in ESP before nodding. "Great, let's go then."

I started moving through the crowded room and people quickly moved out of the way, glancing behind me. "Huh," I said looking over my shoulder at Hal. "That's pretty useful. Maybe I should bring you to the mall - at least for black Friday sales." Hal blushed and I flashed a smile, turning back as I smacked into somebody. "Oh shit, sorry."

I looked up at the warm chuckle. "Oh cupcake. Do I want to know what you're involved in now?"

"Hey Joe. What makes you think I'm involved in anything?" I asked putting my hands on my hips. Joe raised an eyebrow and gestured to my hulking shadow. "Right… Well you know me, danger magnet. But you don't have to worry about it. I've got Eddie on the case and my designated bodyguards. Same old."

"You know it doesn't work like that. Just because we're not dating anymore doesn't mean I'm going to stop worrying about you."

"I know, but we promised to take a step back and let it settle and I'm going to try to respect that. I've got this covered." I gave him a quick hug.

"Ok cupcake. Just promise me that you're staying safe and you will let me know if you need help." Joe said.

I nodded and then continued on to find Eddie. I had just located him when Manny came striding over. "We've got to go. Now."

"What?! Where, Why?" I gasped as he wrapped an arm around me and ushered me to the door. "Hey slow down! Look can you just talk to me."

"Steph. We need to go." I nodded and let Manny half drag me to the SUV.

"What about my car?" I asked as the guys climbed into the front seat. "And what's changed?"

"Someone will get it later." Manny said. "I don't know Steph. Ranger texted Code S-Red."

"And what the hell is Code S-Red?" I asked leaning forward.

"It's an alert sent to your closest unit with your exact location. It means get you and bring you to headquarters ASAP."

"What the hell? What other codes are there?"

"Involving you? Black - all teams to you and a complete lockdown, yellow - tail you, blue - you're missing and we need to locate you, white - grab you and run and green - up close bodyguards." Manny said distractedly.

"You know that's crazy right?"

"Saved your ass a few times already but we haven't had a S-Red since the Junkman incident." He shot back as we drove up to Rangeman.

My blood went cold at the sight of the horde of Merry Men standing outside the gate. They quickly waved us in and Tank opened my door and swept me into the elevator.

"Tank, please what's going on? Where's Ranger?" I asked as he opened up the door to Ranger's apartment.

"He's fine, just handling some things." Tank moved us into the living room.

"What's with the lockdown?"

"Someone left a dead body outside our door. There was a note pinned to him with your name on it." He hesitated for a moment. "A picture of you, Hal and Manny going into the police station with a target over the guys. The photo was taken up close and our dead guy was standing beside you."